Arash Saghar: Five Months in Security Ward 209 of Evin Prison

A
source close to Arash Saghar, a senior member of Mir Hossein Mousavi's
presidential campaign headquarters in a predominantly Sunni region told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that five months after his
arrest, Saghar remains in the Ministry of Intelliigence's Security Ward 209 at
Evin prison, with no further development in his case. The said source said that
Arash Saghar is under pressure in interrogations because of his relations with
Molavi Abdolhamid, the leader of Iranian Sunnis.

Arash Saghar is from the city of Gonbad-e Kavoos.
He served as a liaison between Mousavi's campaign and the Sunni population in
the region. He was arrested on November 22, 2009 and has remained in prison for
refusing to accept the interrogators' demands. After his detention, Saghar was
dismissed from his job.

It seems over the past few months many political
prisoners' cases have remained in a limbo. In instances such as student activist
Bahareh Hedayat's case, or the case of Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, where authorities
claimed that his case file had been lost, it was not clear who was in charge of
the cases. Families of political prisoners who have attempted to follow up on
the cases in courts, have faced similar problems.

Arash Saghar is one of the individuals who were
arrested during the post-elections events, but who has remained anonymous thus
far. He has been charged with espionage for Turkmenistan. No independent source
has been able to examine and verify the evidence used for such charges, or
whether the legal process in Saghar's case is in proper conditions.